Fu Shan lived in the late Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. He has understanding of many topics such as philosophy, medicine, Confucianism, Buddhism, poetry, calligraphy, painting and martial arts.

Fu excessively studied food and invented tounao, a noted snack in Taiyuan. He passed the snack to a restaurant and named the restaurant "Qing He Yuan", which implies eating tounao, or brains, of rulers in Qing and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties.

The Fu Shan Spring Chicken was developed based on Fu's cooking methods and therefore got the name.